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LISP is a programming language that has certain advantages for those who must work with variable-length lists. At one time it formed the core of AutoCAD, and it can still be used to create additional routines for AutoCAD. Many useful LISP routines have been published in CAD magazines, but needed aids for modeling surfaces in AutoCAD could not be found elsewhere; so CSA's Director, Harrison Eiteljorg, II, learned enough of the language to write some LISP routines to help with modeling surfaces. CSA has been using those routines and some other published ones for some time now.
The LISP routines used by CSA for making more complex surfaces, plus a few other routines included in the ACAD.LSP file used at CSA, are now available on the Web. Included are a program to turn AutoCAD polylines into polygonal surfaces and another to make surfaces between two polylines. The routines are included in a single LISP file that can be downloaded from the CSA Web site. There are short explanations included in the file (an ASCII file that can be read without special tools), and there is also an associated Web document to provide additional help. AutoCAD users who know how to alter or replace their ACAD.LSP files may download and use CSA's ACAD.LSP file freely. (The file for downloading is a zipped file named ACADLISP.zip. For current information on this downloadable this file see www.csanet.org/inftech/csalisp.html. -- 11 July 2000)
For other Newsletter articles concerning the applications of CAD modelling in archaeology and architectural history consult the Subject index.
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Table of Contents for the August, 1996 issue of the CSA Newsletter (Vol. 9, no. 2)
Table of Contents for all CSA Newsletter issues on the Web